Quote:
Originally Posted by Orphalesion
I didn't just dislike the Rohirrim because they reminded me of Grendel, another big part is that they were simply not "magic" enough. Come on the first book gave us enchanted forests and black riders and fire demons and Rohan doesn't measure up in that department imho.
There ARE some good parts in Rohan, I particularly like it when Grima tires to put down Galadriel and Gandalf counters with that "In Dwimordene, in Lorien" poem. Etc...
...And the Rohirrim are among the more warlike cultures in the LOTR, (well of course they are at war) but compare Eowyn *must-seek-battle-battle* with Faramir (my second-most favorite character) or with Haldir's complaint that the peace has left Lorien. However I know that the Rohirrim are not in fact monsters, when Peter Jackson in the movie version had Theoden arm 10 year old children and elderly grey beards I almost screamed at the theatre screen that Theoden would never have done such a thing unless the situation would have been much, much more dire than Helm's Deep.
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With the Rohirrim, Tolkien was describing an entirely different culture than what we have met previously, and one of wholly mortal men, not Half-Elves and Hobbits, Istari and Elves, or Dwarves and Dunedain. It was important to Tolkien that these stoic and superstitious men -- distant relatives of the Edain -- should be given their due, particularly because they mirrored the Anglo-saxon literary heritage that Tolkien felt was denied England when the Normans damned the newly evolving language with their Frenchified foppery and lawyerly Latinate. We gain insight into normal mortals with the Rohirrim, not the impossibly pristine Noldor or all-powerful Maiarin sorts that fart magic. These are Dark Age men and women fighting a foe that they know is beyond them, yet they fight on anyway.